Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[SJeW]

If you've actually beaten one of the early Wizardry titles you have no reason to play on anything below PotD.

 

[Ellef]

Pretty sure Josh was playing on normal.

 

[mutonizer]

Pretty sure Josh was playing on normal.

Not the "under stronghold" stream. That was on hard (according to him) and his team was level 4, which, since that's after you get the stronghold, should be normal level for the area.

 

[Sensuki]

I play on Hard. I intend to try and modify the encounters to be a bit more challenging to be used with the No Engagement Mod to create a more "Icewind Dale" style experience.

Hard's just adjusted encounters and no damage reduction unlike normal and easy, enemies still can't hit or defend for shit...
Should really give PotD a go Sensuki, especially if you respec/specialize companions a bit. Boosted ACC and DEF for enemies is really nice to put them on par with an elite party composition.

To each his own though

I'll probably be giving the default companions a try for the stories they bring but I'm ultra pro human in these games and when you're gonna "save the world", I have problems bringing moronic misfits who are barely fit for duty around with me usually. Ah well, we'll see how it goes!

I understand the appeal, but I think scaling of stats will just make many class builds not viable. I'd prefer to modify things to my liking on Hard instead, without having to be subject to the +50% stat scaling on PotD. I'm sure that if I want the greatest challenge, that I should play on PotD, but I have other motives - I want to play to see what I want to change. As far as I'm concerned, Hard is the vanilla difficulty.

 

[Zombra]

Blah, no archive of Anthony Davis' stream

http://www.twitch.tv/theroguezombie/b/640510979 ?

Thanks, I was looking at the wrong place

 

[ArchAngel]

Kana has more INT than Aloth...what the fuck

Thank you Mr. Sawyer for your Balance!

 

[mutonizer]

I understand the appeal, but I think scaling of stats will just make many class builds not viable. I'd prefer to modify things to my liking on Hard instead, without having to be subject to the +50% stat scaling on PotD. I'm sure that if I want the greatest challenge, that I should play on PotD, but I have other motives - I want to play to see what I want to change. As far as I'm concerned, Hard is the vanilla difficulty.

Scaling is not that big but yea, totally understand. I know that I do like some kind of specialization in cRPGs usually and with all the hints of possible massive "itemzplosion" from BB and whatnot, I fear that very quickly my dudes will just be completely out of reach for most enemies, with DEF so high they can't hit, or ACC so high they can't defend and don't want to end up playing the last 50% of the game completely wiping out everything on sight. That said, I fear it'll happen even with Path of the Damned.

That's the beauty of difficulty settings in games like this though, to each his own

 

[Roguey]

So did you guise get this upset over BG's suboptimally built companions too?

I figured, just like the D&D games, they'd build companions based on role-playing and not roll-playing. Fortunately, with Josh's system, role playing is more viable here than in D&D.

Except hard is the default experience and any bug or balance reports would be best made on that difficulty.

Hard is the Josh Sawyer experience but almost everyone else at Obsidian plays on normal because they are bad/not-so-great at playing games.

 

[accismus]

Kana has more INT than Aloth...what the fuck

Thank you Mr. Sawyer for your Balance!

"Shut the $#&^#& up."

And anyway, what, to you, must a high INT person look like? Do all high INT people look like this person?

 

[mutonizer]

So did you guise get this upset over BG's suboptimally built companions too?
I figured, just like the D&D games, they'd build companions based on role-playing and not roll-playing. Fortunately, with Josh's system, role playing is more viable here than in D&D.

I was a lot younger then but yea, was an issue. I really like the stories they bring however so I usually suck it up. It's really hard to be a roll-playing role-player. No idea why the two can't be compatible and why "role playing" should mean "sucks balls at his job" or run around with complete morons.

If I'm gonna save the world, I tend to play very elitist characters at first and rarely go with "he's a useless moron but heh, he's my friend so I'd feel bad not bringing him along...". I do sometimes make more emotional characters as well though in later playthrough, then I bring people based on personalities and less on stats. Really depends on how I conjure up my various characters.

First run however is nearly always a lawful neutral elitist racist fascist no nonsense with a job to do (usually fighter/paladin tank)

 

[bonescraper]

If I'm gonna save the world

You aren't. And you weren't saving it in BG either.

 

[mutonizer]

If I'm gonna save the world

You aren't. And you weren't saving it in BG either.

Figure of speech
noun

1. a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.

 

[bonescraper]

But you're not saving the world, and a team of sub-par peasants is all you have at your disposal. Deal with it, or cry me a river.

 

[Diablo169]

They are Obsidian written companions. I couldn't give a shit what their stats are, they are coming with me.

 

[Sensuki]

I use vanilla BG2 stats but for BG1 I think I modify Shar-Teel's Constitution at least.

 

[Ellef]

BG1 has some pretty poorly built companions but you can fix them somewhat with the magical items that your PC won't need.

Aloth is obviously built under a different build when perception mattered to aoe or duration (can't recall). Put that 6 pts into Might instead and he's ok.

 

[imweasel]

Kana has more INT than Aloth...what the fuck

Thank you Mr. Sawyer for your Balance!

"Shut the $#&^#& up."

And anyway, what, to you, must a high INT person look like? Do all high INT people look like this person?

Aloth probably has more strength so that he can throw spells harder to make up for his lack of intelligence.

 

[mutonizer]

But you're not saving the world, and a team of sub-par peasants is all you have at your disposal. Deal with it, or cry me a river.

Dude, you do whatever you want, I'll be over there doing whatever the fuck I want.

As an aside, it's not just stats, but also personalities. Most of my main characters would never be caught dead with the like of Minsc, Khalid, Montaron, Xzar and others. Some would but most of the time, nope.
That's not to say they arn't good fun, they just don't fit whatsoever.

 

[Kattze]

Sensuki, now that it's 23rd and streamers are allowed to stream partially the first Act, can you share with us your thoughts (vague enough to fit with NDA) regarding the game? What do you like? What don't you like (except for engagement, lol).
The anticipations is killing me D:

I'm not allowed to talk about the game until the 26th, sorry. I am not sure when the embargo ends, my understanding was that it was in like 2.5 hours time or something. I don't really want to jump the gun and get in trouble.

I'm currently writing the script for my Guide, Part 1 should be uploaded sometime within the next 6 hours or so I suppose.

Wait, why are you under an NDA? Did they hire you to do some work for them?

 

[MicoSelva]

I was not aware normal gives enemies x0.75 damage baby gloves. This means hard is the only difficulty worth considering, because I also hate stat boosts for enemies on Path of the Damned. Good to know.

 

[mutonizer]

I was not aware normal gives enemies x0.75 damage baby gloves. This means hard is the only difficulty worth considering, because I also hate stat boosts for enemies on Path of the Damned. Good to know.

That was before release patch with BB480. That said, Anthony Davis (sp?) in his stream mentioned that Normal was made slightly easier for release version.

As a note, stat boost for enemies is constant (15ACC/DEF and x1.25 Endurance for all) as far as I know from BB480. That makes them on par with your own dudes most of the time, meaning 6 of your guys against 6 guys is a fair fight. And that's only considering early on, even in BB480, some gear here and there and you already see the massive itemxplosion effect at work. No idea how that'll play out on release of course but I really rather cry like a baby early on and have a good balance of fights later, then have a balance early on and just rolfstomp everything later on.

 

[bonescraper]

Aloth probably has more strength so that he can throw spells harder to make up for his lack of intelligence.

Aloth was the #1 pitcher for Cythwood Raiders, the best baseball team this side of the Aedyr Empire. He has a strong throwing arm, naturally.

 

[Athelas]

Easy: small easy encounters and you take 50% damage from enemies. Max supplies is 6.
Normal: normal encounters and you take 75% damage from enemies. Max supplies is 4.
Hard: harder encounters and you take full damage from enemies. Max supplies is 2.
Path of the Damned: complete encounters (max possible from all difficulty settings), you take 100% damage and enemies have +15ACC/DEF as well as slightly boosted Endurance. Max supplies is 2.

Unless this was changed for release, this is bogus. Only Path of the Damned changes enemy stats, the other difficulties change what kind of enemies you face and how many of them.

 

[mutonizer]

Easy: small easy encounters and you take 50% damage from enemies. Max supplies is 6.
Normal: normal encounters and you take 75% damage from enemies. Max supplies is 4.
Hard: harder encounters and you take full damage from enemies. Max supplies is 2.
Path of the Damned: complete encounters (max possible from all difficulty settings), you take 100% damage and enemies have +15ACC/DEF as well as slightly boosted Endurance. Max supplies is 2.

Unless this was changed for release, this is bogus. Only Path of the Damned changes enemy stats, the other difficulties change what kind of enemies you face and how many of them.

Damage modifiers might be only for traps, true, my bad. That said, will have to wait for release to see how all this plays out really.

 

[Haba]

Wait, why are you under an NDA? Did they hire you to do some work for them?

That's no NDA, it's a restraining order.